Liberty Motors
the name applied to types of internal combustion engines produced under the direction of the United States Government during the time of the World War.
There is a widely current impression that the Liberty motor was designed during a five day conference held in Wash- LIBERTY MOTORS At the beginning of the war the Packard Company offered all the results of its experimentation to the government free of charge, although it had cost the Packard Company almost $400,000. In order that no one company should determine the policy of the government for the production of airplane motors, a conference was called in Washington between Mr. J. G. Vincent (afterward Colonel), chief engineer of the Packard Motor Company, and Major E. J. Hall of the Hall-Scott Company, in which conference the plans of the Packard Company kurd дя LIBERTY MOTOR As ington in the early part of the war. a matter of fact, it was a further dea further development and refinement of a motor which had been made by the Packard Motor Company of Detroit. Early in the war Mr. Henry Joy, then President of the Packard Company, became convinced that the United States would be drawn into the struggle, and he realized that this country was entirely unprepared to produce a satisfactory airplane motor, so at his instigation the Packard Company began experimentation, and produced several preliminary models which were tested and successfully used in special motor car bodies. were studied, suggestions for improvements made, and finally, upon the basis of the Packard's one and one-half years of experimentation, and with the co-operation of almost every American motor builder and automobile manufacturer, plans for the motor were agreed upon.
On the receipt of telegraphic instructions, the Packard Company began work upon its first model of the new motor, which was delivered in Washington on July 4, 1917, announced to the public, and christened the Liberty Motor.
It was deemed more advisable to build the Liberty motors in the then existing shops rather than build new plants for an be conve d cylinder with great tted with is welded of the un in the cylin es were exp parts becs at they we flanges which ion caused types of were expe ally design The pistons Hall-Scott e of, the for ed in Ameri chaft is a e except for A special is used.
Eon by a p Company, signed for -mpany. T In the head by & mco ag that of t valves of order the be shortene e located otor was su , and may of Americ TY PAR tates, grew Society, and herents the tary of t President, in 1844, w loyd Garri Gar Tappan, and Sala o the Free TA, the Rof funerals. one of the ms. It is ns Scorpio, and Lupu e first me the zodi LIBERTY MOTORS their production, and in many plants the manufacture of motors for motor cars gave way to the production of Liberty motors or their parts, and many other plants produced the tools, jigs, and other for the quantity production of these motors.
Up to the time of the Armistice, the government had let contracts for about motors, of which number about 60,000 were to be Liberty motors.
The first Liberty motor built upon the quantity production basis was shipped from the Packard plant on Thanksgiving Day, 1917, and quantity production was so well organized that by the time of the armistice, the government had ac- Liberty motors, the daily production being over 150, while England was after four years producing Rolls the rate of but 59 a day. Since this country was the only one of the powers which was producing faster than it was producing airplanes, the planes of the other nations were designed to take our motors.
Among the larger contractors were the Packard Company and the Lincoln Motor Company, which had each a contract for 6,000 motors, the Ford Company with a pany with a contract for 5,000, Nordyke 3,000, and the General Motors for 2,000.
The early designs called for an eight cylinder motor, but demands from France caused the plans to be changed, and most of the motors built were twelve cylinder models, which weighed about 825 pounds and developed as high as 480 horse power, its weight being less than two pounds per horse power, which is considered very light.
The original motors were tested at the LIBRA ers can be converted into a headed and flanged cylinder blank at small expense and with great rapidity. The cylinders are fitted with a stamped steel jacket the cylinder. Because of the metal in the cylinder, and the jacket, dif- cause of the unequal thickness of the ficulties were experienced in the welding metal in the cylinder, and the jacket, difof the parts because of the unequal heating, but they ing, but they were overcome by raising upon the heavier cylinwelded. der, to which flanges the jacket was various types of magnetos and ignition Ignition caused some difficulty, and a specially designed Delco system was devices were experimented with before are of Hall-Scott design, the connecting used. The pistons of the Liberty motor rods are of the forked type such as were first used in America by the Cadillac, the der type except for the special oiling decrank shaft is a standard twelve-cylinvices. A special pump pressure oiling device is used.
The water is kept in circulation by a pump developed by the a special carburetor was designed for this motor, and the shaft drive was de for each set of cylinders. The valves Scott Company. There is one cam shaft developed by the Hallare set in the head of the motor and are operated by a mechanism more or less The inlet valves of the motor are on the resembling that of the German Mercedes. inside, in order that the travel of the gas may be shortened, while the exhaust valves are located on the outside. vere tests, and may be cited as a great The motor was subject to the most sethe most setriumph of American engineering and methods.